Reading Francis

Here’s what I posted on Facebook today. I plan to write more reflective notes on what Pope Leo XIV from the balcony and what that might mean for the Church tomorrow.

OK Real quick because I have a day job:

1) I think this is a great if extremely surprising choice. There’s been a longstanding assumption that an American pope is a bad idea, because nobody wants to give the US any more attention than it already gets as the Western superpower, and because the growth of the Church is not here, but in Asia and Africa. Cardinal Prevost, though, is the least American of American cardinals. Most of his career has been outside of the US.

2) I love that he is the former head of a religious order (the Augustinians). I find that for the most part, religious orders (like Franciscans, Jesuits, Dominicans, etc.) tend to be less institutionally focused and more focused on the Gospel.

3) From an electoral strategy standpoint, Prevost ran the department in the Vatican that oversaw bishops, so he was known well by all the cardinals in a conclave that, thanks to Francis, had a lot of strangers from far flung lands. My suspicion is that he was a lot of voters’ second choice, and when they found the ceiling on their first choice, he became the logical consensus pick.

4) Leo XIV: The beginning of Catholic Social Thought (and the real engagement of the Church in modern social issues) was Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum Novarum. That’s what Prevost is likely signaling with his choice of names: a focus on peacemaking, social justice issues, attention to the poor.

5) His remarks: His Italian is good and I loved that he also spoke in Spanish. His remarks CLEARLY signaled that he wanted to build on Francis’ focus on “Todos, todos, todos” – including everyone in the journey together. He also talked about synodality, which shows an interest in implementing a less hierarchical, more listening model of being Church. Yes, he wore fancier stuff than Francis, and he didn’t wrap up by telling everyone to pray for him and encouraging them to have a nice dinner. But I think he’ll be a less dramatic version of what we just saw in Pope Francis.

6) Who knows: When Bergoglio was elected as Pope Francis, people thought he would be an authoritarian. We’ll see how the role shapes Leo XIV and what surprises await us all.

7) When Francis died, I said the cardinals would decide whether they wanted Francis’ dynamic, inclusive, evangelical spirit, or someone who had the institutional knowledge to clean up the Vatican, or someone who had the vision to implement synodality and a Church that walks together. Leo XIV is definitely the last two and sounds like he might be all three.

Back to work. I’ll answer questions when I can later.